Vise

ABSTRACT

A vise having a frame on which a stationary jaw is mounted, a sliding carriage mounted in said frame in a manner for movement of a movable jaw on the carriage to move toward and away from the stationary jaw, such free sliding being accomplished by an operator simply pushing the movable jaw toward the stationary jaw by hand quickly, pushing and pulling wedges which are adapted to lock themselves in a position in the frame at times when a lever is operated, following engagement of the jaws with the workpiece, further movement of the lever causing the jaws to be pressed together and rotation of the lever in an opposite direction causing the jaws to pull apart and the wedges to unlock themselves from the frame.

United States Patent Hostetter Feb. 22, 1972 [54] VISE Primary ExairiinerFrank T. Yost 72 Inventor: John L. 110mm, Murray, Nebr. 68409 221 Filed: Oct. 6, 1969 [57] ABSTRACT A vise having a frame on which a stationary jaw is mounted, a sliding carriage mounted in said frame in a manner for move- 52 us. (:1 ..269/l90 mm of a movable jaw the carriage m toward nd [51] Int Cl 1325b U02 away from the stationary aw, such free slidmg bemg accomfished b an o er Sim I "shin the mo abl aw tow d ..269 190,191,192 P PYP g N Field of Search the stationary aw by hand quickly, pushing and pulling wedges which are adapted to lock themselves in a position in References C'ted the frame at times when a lever is operated, following engage- UNITED STATES PATENTS ment of the jaws with the workpiece, further movement of the lever causing the jaws to be pressed together and rotation of 108,840 I l/ 1 870 Sinclair ..269/192 the lever in an opposite direction causing the jaws to pull apart 962,983 6/1910 Schlosser .269/190 X and the wedges to unlock themselves from the frame. 2,800,819 7/1957 Smith ..269/l91 FOREIGN PATENTS OR APPLICATIONS 3 Claims, 3 Drawing Figures 318,816 7/1929 Great Britain .;'1'.;."...'2'69/'1'92' ,0 '3 40 340 24 12 1 5240 l 21: l 96 322 L m2 I r \l 4/: N2 37 7 34- l" s50 #00 7Z0 4!: 4 2 4: 42o 1 94 w 1 I l l I I w 438 4/0 //a/ 6/2 430 PATENTED F EB 22 I972 SHEET 1 0F 2 NOV BQV INVENTOR JOHN L. HOSTETTER PATENTEDFEB22 m2 3.643.936

' sum 2 or 2 FIGS INVENTOR.

JOHN L. HOSTETTER' vIsE FIELD or THE INVENTION This invention is in the field of vises and clamps.

DESCRIPTION OF THE PRIOR ART Common bench vises are as slow to operate by a rotation of their levers at times when a major movement of the movable jaw is required as they are when only a minor movement is needed.

This causes the workman operating such a vise to waste much time making a major readjustment of the vise in between using it for thick and thin objects.

There has long been a need for a vise, the major adjustments of which can be accomplished by simply pushing the movable jaw toward the stationary jaw, or pulling the movable jaw away from the stationary jaw rapidly and manually, with the release of the slower clamping action being accomplished by the same lever that is used to back the movable jaw away from the stationary jaw at the time of the initial release of a workpiece from the vise.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION A vise having a frame on which a stationary jaw is mounted, a sliding carriage mounted in said frame in a manner for movement of a movable jaw on the carriage to move toward and 1 away from the stationary jaw, such free sliding being accomplished by an operator simply pushing the movable jaw toward the stationary jaw by hand quickly, pushing and pulling wedges which are adapted to lock themselves in a position in the frame at times when a lever is operated, following engagement of the jaws with the workpiece, further movement of the lever causing the jaws to be pressed together and rotation of the lever in an opposite direction causing the jaws to pull apart and the wedges to unlock themselves from the frame, an inclined plane assembly comprising first and second interacting threaded sections, the first section being attached to a lever shaft and being rotatable with respect to the carriage, the second section being attached to the narrow end of the pulling wedge, means for connecting a wide end of the pushing wedge to the carriage for movement therewith so as to cause the pushing wedge to be positioned in the frame, and thereby proportional to the position of the movable jaw at the time of its first engagement with an object to be clamped.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWING DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS The vise of this invention is generally indicated at 10 and has a frame 12 to which a stationary jaw 20 is attached, the jaw being attached to an upper part of the frame 12 and extending upwardly therefrom.

A movable jaw is disposed opposite the stationary jaw 20. The sliding carriage, generally indicated at 40, is connected to and supports the movable jaw 30. The sliding carriage 40 has two horizontally extending slide bars 50, which latter are disposed against the sidewalls of a carriage opening in the frame 12, the opening 20 being defined by the space between two side posts 74 of the frame.

The bars 50 are also guided by upwardly extending guide members which engage the outer sides of the bars 50 at points disposed forwardly along the frame from the posts 74.

The carriage 40 has its bars 50 slidably received in the opening 70 in a manner for linear movements of the movable jaw 30 in directions toward and away from the stationaryjaw 20, as the carriage slides linearly through the opening 70.

The movement of the movable jaw 30 toward the stationary jaw 20 defines a direction of jaw closing motion of the movable jaw as indicated by an arrow in FIG. 3.

The frame opening 70 has first and second substantially parallel wedge-confining wall surfaces 94 and 96 disposed in substantial alignment with the direction of jaw closing motion 90 in the sense that as shown, surfaces 94 and 96 are each horizontal parallel planar surfaces in parallelism with the direction of jaw closing motion 90. A pushing wedge 100 and a pulling wedge 102 are provided and are disposed between the first and second wedge-confining wall surfaces 94 and 96, and the wedges 100 and 102 have adjacent edges 104 and 106 which are disposed facing each other, but somewhat spaced apart, and the wedges 100 and 102 also have outer edges 110 and 112 on the opposite side of each respective wedge from the adjacent edges 104 and 106, respectively.

The wedges 102 and 100 each have one end of greater width than its other end as measured between the respective adjacent edge 104 or 106 and the respective outer edge 110 or 112 of each wedge respectively.

The narrow end of the pulling wedge 102 faces in a direction substantially opposite to the direction of jaw closing movement 90. An inclined plane assembly, generally indicated at 200, comprises first and second sections 202 and 204, which latter are defined more specifically by a threaded shaft 220, which latter is externally threaded and by a axially turning member 222, which latter threadedly receives an outer end of the thread shaft 220, the inner end of the thread shaft 220 being attached to the narrow end of the pulling wedge 102.

The axially turning member 222 can be considered to be attached to a lever shaft 230 at its outer end, the latter having an opening 234 therethrough for receiving a lever 240, which extends transversely to the lever shaft 230. As thus described the secondassembly section 202 is thereby attached to the narrow end of the pulling wedge 112.

The sections 202 and 204 are slidably engaging each other along the respective threads and as the first assembly section 202 is rotated, so that as the firstsection 202 is moved by the lever 240 in each of two opposite certain directions of rotation, the first section 202 will engage the second section 204 and will pull the second section 204 in a direction for pulling the pulling wedge 112 in a direction 300 which is opposite to the direction of the movable jaw closing 90.

As best seen in FIG. 1, the axially turning member 222 has internal threads, as seen at 310, in engagement with the external threads of the threadshaft 220. The axially turning member 222 is prevented from moving lengthwise of itself with respect to the carriage by means of two retainers 320 and 322 which are disposed on opposite sides of a forward wall 330 of the carriage, the forward wall 330 extending at 90 to the axis of rotation 340 of the axially turning member 222, and the forward wall 330 having an opening 340 therethrough loosely receiving the axially fitted member 222 for free sliding and rotation thereof with respect to the forward wall 330. The retainers 320 and 322 extend outwardly from sides of the axially tuming member 222 to a greater extent than the wall of the opening 340, and the retainers are secured to the axially turning member 222 by any suitable means so that they rotate with the axially turning member 222.

To wide end 400 of the pushing wedge 100 is connected to the carriage by a connection assembly, generally indicated at 410, and which comprises first a bolt 412 which is anchored in the wide forward end 400 of pushing wedge 100, such as by a threaded connection 420, the bolt 412 extending slidably through an opening 430 which extends through an attachment member 432 in a direction parallel to the direction of the movable jaw closing 90.

The bolt 412 has a head 434 on the forward side of the attachment member 432, and a spring 438 is coiled about the bolt 412, and presses against the forward side 400 of the pushing wedge 100, and also against an inner side or rearward side of the attachment member 432.

As thus described the wide end of the pushing wedge is attached to the carriage for movement therewith since the attachment member 432 is anchored to the remainder of the carriage.

The frame 12 in addition to the posts 74, which can be called outer posts 74, also has inner walls 600, which are disposed on the inside of the sliding bars 50, and which have their upper and lower ends suitably attached to upper and lower side walls 610 and 612 of the frame 12. The inner walls 600 have sides which are disposed in planes in parallel with the planar sides of the wedges, the carriage bars 50, and the outer posts 74.

The lower wall 612 can be bolted to a workbench by means of openings 700 therethrough, or, if desired, the entire structure can be used as a clamp, unattached to a work bench.

The adjacent edges 104 and 106 of the wedges incline upwardly toward the forward end, or in other words, incline more toward the jaws at the forward or right end of the vise, and a separation plate 710 is disposed between the wedges presenting flat planar surfaces to each of the adjacent edges 104 and 106 of the wedges, and the separation plate 710 has a central portion 712 disposed between the inner walls 600. The separation plate 710 further has ends which are horizontally enlarged so as to extend across the forward sides of the inner walls 600 and across the rearward sides of the inner walls 600, respectively, such ends being shown at 720 and 722, and serving to prevent the separation plate 710 from sliding lengthwise of the wedges.

The separation plate is thereby anchored to the frame 12 to prevent a forward motion of the pulling wedge 102 from causing a forward motion of the pushing wedge 100 by maintaining the wedges out of frictional engagement with each other.

As thus described the operation is that while moving the movable jaw 30 through a considerable distance up to an object to be clamped the force of the movement is supplied by the operator himself by simply and quickly pushing on the movable jaw, and pulling thereon can be used for major distance adjustments of jaw positions for separating them. Pressure is then applied from the movable jaw toward the stationary jaw by twisting the lever 240 which draws the pulling wedge 102 toward the lever 240 so that it presses downwardly against the separation plate, forcing the pushing wedge 100 against the lower side 612 of the frame, or at the same time the upper side of the pulling wedge 112 is wedged against the upper side 610 of the frame, thereby locking the wedges in place in the frame.

After such locking further movement of the lever 240 in the same direction will push the movable jaw 30 toward the stationary jaw with the force of the threaded interconnection of the internally threaded member 222 with the threaded shaft 220, this latter being much as is the case with the operation of a common vise. The big difference is that the major distance adjustments are done quickly and manually by simply pushing and pulling on the movable jaw 30, and are not accomplished through a slow means of monotonous rotations of the lever 240.

I claim:

1. A vise comprising a frame, a stationary jaw attached to an upper part of said frame, a movable jaw disposed opposite said stationary jaw, a sliding carriage connected to and supporting said movable jaw, said frame having a carriage opening therethrough, said carriage having a portion linearly slidably received in said opening in a manner for linear movement of said movable jaw in directions toward and away from said stationary jaw as said carriage slides linearly through said opening, the movement of said movable jaw toward said stationary jaw defining a direction of jaw closing motion of said movable jaw, said frame opening having first and second substantially parallel wedge-confining wall surfaces disposed in substantial alignment with said direction of linear motion, a pushing wedge and a pullin wedge, said wedges being disposed between said wall su aces and having adjacent edges disposed facing each other and having outer edges on the opposite side of each wedge respectively from said adjacent edges, said outer edges of said wedges facing said first and second wedgeconfining surfaces respectively, said wedges each having one end of greater width than its other end as measured between the respective adjacent edge and the respective outer edge of each wedge, said wedges being arranged with the narrow ends of each disposed toward the opposite ends of said body, the narrow end of said pulling wedge facing the direction substantially opposite to the direction of jaw closing movement, an inclined plane assembly comprising first and second sections, a lever, means mounting said lever on said first section, said second assembly section being connected to the narrow end of said pulling wedge, said sections slidably engaging each other so that as said first section is moved by said lever in each of two certain directions, said first section will engage said second section and pull said second section in a direction for pulling said pulling wedge in a direction opposite to the direction of said jaw closing motion of said movable jaw, a separation means disposed between said wedges and movably connected to said frame in a manner permitting said separation means to float in directions transversely of the adjacent edges of said wedges but limiting movement of said separation means in directions in substantial parallelism with the linear movement of said movable jaw, means connecting the wide end of said pushing wedge to said carriage for movement therewith, said pushing wedge connecting piece comprising a resilient means operatively correlated with said pushing wedge and said carriage so that after said movable jaw has engaged a solid object disposed between said jaws, then further movement of said lever in one of said certain directions will pull said pulling wedge into a locking position with respect to said separation means, said pushing wedge and said frame so that said wedges and said separation means are jammed tightly into the space between said wedge confining wall surfaces, and whereby further motion of said lever in a same direction tends to pull said carriage and said movable jaw in said direction for jaw closing as is made possible by a yielding of said resilient means.

2. The combination of claim 1 in which said pushing wedge connecting means comprises: a retaining member with one end attached to said pushing wedge, said carriage having a portion disposed in a position spaced from said pushing wedge in the direction of jaw opening, said carriage portion having an opening therethrough extending in the direction of jaw closing, the other end of said retaining member extending slidably through said opening in said portion in a manner permitting sliding movement of said carriage along said shank toward said pushing wedge, said retaining member having an enlarged portion disposed on the opposite side of said carriage opening from said pushing wedge, said enlarged portion being of a size for engaging said portion of said carriage around said opening at at least one side of said opening so that as said carriage moves in a direction for jaw opening, said wedge will be pulled with said carriage, and a compression spring disposed between said portion of said carriage and said pushing wedge in a position for urging them apart, said spring defining said resilient means.

3. The combination of claim 2 in which said spring is a coiled compression spring wound around said shank. 

1. A vise comprising a frame, a stationary jaw attached to an upper part of said frame, a movable jaw disposed opposite said stationary jaw, a sliding carriage connected to and supporting said movable jaw, said frame having a carriage opening therethrough, said carriage having a portion linearly slidably received in said opening in a manner for linear movement of said movable jaw in directions toward and away from said stationary jaw as said carriage slides linearly through said opening, the movement of said movable jaw toward said stationary jaw defining a direction of jaw closing motion of said movable jaw, said frame opening having first and second substantially parallel wedgeconfining wall surfaces disposed in substantial alignment with said direction of linear motion, a pushing wedge and a pulling wedge, said wedges being disposed between said wall surfaces and having adjacent edges disposed facing each other and having outer edges on the opposite side of each wedge respectively from said adjacent edges, said outer edges of said wedges facing said first and second wedge-confining surfaces respectively, said wedges each having one end of greater width than its other end as measured between the respective adjacent edge and the respective outer edge of each wedge, said wedges being arranged with the narrow ends of each disposed toward the opposite ends of said body, the narrow end of said pulling wedge facing the direction substantially opposite to the direction of jaw closing movement, an inclined plane assembly comprising first and second sections, a lever, means mounting said lever on said first section, said second assembly section being connected to the narrow end of said pulling wedge, said sections slidably engaging each other so that as said first section is moved by said lever in each of two certain directions, said first section will engage said second section and pull said second section in a direction for pulling said pulling wedge in a direction opposite to the direction of said jaw closing motion of said movable jaw, a separation means disposed between said wedges and movably connected to said frame in a manner permitting said separation means to float in directions transversely of the adjacent edges of said wedges but limiting movement of said separation means in directions in substantial parallelism with the linear movement of said movable jaw, means connecting the wide end of said pushing wedge to said carriage for movement therewith, said pushing wedge connecting piece comprising a resilient means operatively correlated with said pushing wedge and said carriage so that after said movable jaw has engaged a solid object disposed between said jaws, then further movement of said lever in one of said certain directions will pull said pulling wedge into a locking position with respect to said separation means, said pushing wedge and said frame so that said wedges and said separation means are jammed tightly into the space between said wedge confining wall surfaces, and whereby further motion of said lever in a same direction tends to pull said carriage and said movable jaw in said direction for jaw closing as is made possible by a yielding of said resilient means.
 2. The combination of claim 1 in which said pushing wedge connecting means comprises: a retaining member with one end attached to said pushing wedge, said carriage having a portion disposed in a position spaced from said pushing wedge in the direction of jaw opening, said carriage portion having an opening therethrough extending in the direction of jaw closing, the other end of said retaining member extending slidably through said opening in said portion in a manner permitting sliding movement of said carriage along said shank toward said pushing wedge, said retaining member having an enlarged portion disposed on the opposite side of said carriage opening from said pushing wedge, said enlarged portion being of a size for engaging said portion of saId carriage around said opening at at least one side of said opening so that as said carriage moves in a direction for jaw opening, said wedge will be pulled with said carriage, and a compression spring disposed between said portion of said carriage and said pushing wedge in a position for urging them apart, said spring defining said resilient means.
 3. The combination of claim 2 in which said spring is a coiled compression spring wound around said shank. 